Ugh: I Just Redeemed 200,000 Miles For A One-Way Ticket

Seriously Lucky, quit the complaining about spending so many miles. It's like the rich man who complains "I had to spend 200000 usd to geT this car. You got a review out of it, which many of your customers (readers) have wanted you to cover. You could also have flown Lufthansa, but chose not to.

@ben, AF has recently released to the press that they will be upgrading their F hard product on their A380s starting at the end of 2019 through 2020. :)

@concorde02 I think he did book it from Paris : "I was trying to decide how to get back from Europe to the US in the coming days...." I do agree though that this review would be lacking if he doesn't go through the lounge experience at CDG, and the food from Paris.

Ben, I was hoping for you to fly this flight out of Paris instead of out of LAX though. Though in LAX you could use QF lounge but the food in the air will be just average out of the US.

I have flown AF First class 10 times, all of which were paid where I found the more reasonable fare ($5-6k instead of $10k). Me along with a few others (e.g. sfo777.com) think that this is the best overall first class in the world, with the new seat on 77W of course. I've flown LH, CX, SQ, TG, BA, QF in F around 20 times each and EK, EY, QR, LX, KE, OZ, NH, JL in F about 5 times each (90% with miles), a few times on AA, UA, and once on JJ, AI, CA. definitely not all, but try to collect data by doing repeats across the board. While my experiences flying J is a lot less, rather do Y if not F (I know I am not mainstream on that). The first reason I like AF First class the most because I think the food in the lounge and on the plane (out of Paris -direction) is so much better than other airlines in first class. On most other airlines, even out of their hubs where they get better catering, it always still feels like an airplane food, even on NH or QR they are great but still not that great. And for the food in the F lounge, AF is the best .. end of story :) (runner ups for lounge food worth mentioning are QF, LX) A big note that if you do NOT fly out of Paris, then the food in the air is just like other airlines in F, we know the reason why. I saw a comment above that the food in the air is not good, I guess this is the case? Second reason is I think I like the balance of being professional, polish, but at the same time, do a small talk, engaging, and give you more personalized service. I found the French culture give the balance that I like most. The mixed crews that are imported from S/SE Asia in ME3 carriers could vary and have inconsistent service. I like how relax and using common sense the AF crews (and the French overall) are. As a AF F passenger, and a Boeing engineer in Autopilot, flight control and navigation, I have been invited to the flightdeck mid flight a few times. Never once that FAs policing me to turn off electronics devices or to fasten seatbelt. They let me hold on to the champagne during take off every times. In some case I saw them left the teacup for other F pax even. The last time my companion was in J but the FA let him come sit on my ottoman during boarding, delay on tarmac, and desert course. They served him all the First Class drinks and desserts (after the pax next to us already put the curtain up, but we kept quiet anyway). Imagine all these on Lufthansa or BA?? no way. The rest are the obvious reasons you can see, the door to door experiences, nice stylish design of the cabin, color choices, etc